What's Up with Harvard Men's Basketball?
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Sophomore center Kenyatta Smith had a breakout weekend for the Crimson as it hosted Penn and Princeton in Lavieties Pavilion. Scoring a career-high 20 points and recording a program-best 10 blocks, Smith was just one rebound shy of a triple-double against the Quakers on Friday night.
Last weekend saw the Harvard men's basketball team sweep the killer P's, Penn and Princeton, at home at Lavietes Pavilion in one of the most important weekends of their year.
The Crimson, now 7-1 in the Ivy League, sits alone at the top of conference standings with just under half the season left to play. Princeton, a game and a half behind, holds an Ancient Eight record of 5-2, having dropped Saturday's game to Harvard a week after their 21-game league win streak at Jadwin Gymnasium was broken by Yale.
So what's next in the world of Ivy hoops? Flyby's resident Crimson sports expert is here to give you what you need to know about our team going forward.
Harvard will hit the road this weekend hoping to sweep southern New England foes Brown and Yale, while Princeton will try to prevent an upset at Columbia and Cornell.
The next weekend will be key to deciding the conference champion. Harvard and Princeton will meet again, this time in New Jersey, in a vital contest on March 1.
Should the Crimson pull off a win in the Tigers' den, a feat they haven't accomplished since Feb. 3, 1989, the Ivy title would be theirs to lose. If Harvard loses, however, Princeton would likely rejoin them atop Ancient Eight. Barring another upset for either team as they close out the regular season, a one-game playoff would be forced to decide which team receives the NCAA berth, and we all know how much Harvard basketball loves one-game playoffs.
With the recent momentum that has propelled the Crimson to two solid victories and the constant threat that is Ian Hummer and his army of orange and black big men, the next couple of weekends will hold the attention of any Ivy basketball fan.
In short, pray that Harvard doesn't drop another game or that Princeton falls to another Ivy opponent, and perhaps the Crimson will get to go dancing again this year.